The Role of Afrocentric Features in Mental Healthcare Utilization and Counselor Preferences in Black College Students

Though mental health issues are prevalent in Black young adults, they underutilize mental healthcare services. This research examined the role of feature-based discrimination in mental healthcare (under)utilization. Study 1, a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, provided no evidence supporting a link between skin tone and mental healthcare utilization, when controlling for depression diagnosis. However, when controlling for depression symptoms, there was a trend such that Black young adults with darker, as opposed to lighter, skin tone utilized healthcare less. Study 2, an experimental study with 33 Black college students, showed 73% of the sample preferred a Black counselor. Additionally, they preferred counselors with darker skin, wider nose, and thicker lips, compared to counselors with lighter skin, narrower nose, and thinner lips. These findings suggest the importance of taking into account Afrocentric features and its social consequences when assessing health-related behaviors in Black Americans

“Is therapy for me?” Perceptions of Therapy Inclusivity and Willingness to Seek Help among Black Emerging Adults

Mental health issues are prevalent among Black emerging adults; however, they tend to underutilize mental healthcare services. The goals of the current study were to examine whether: (1) perceived therapy inclusivity would predict willingness to utilize mental healthcare services and (2) the relationship between perceived therapy inclusivity and willingness would be moderated by two indices of racial identity (i.e., centrality and private regard). Results provide evidence that greater perceptions of therapy inclusivity are associated with greater willingness to seek mental health services even after controlling for factors, such as gender, self-stigma, and previous mental healthcare utilization. Additionally, there was no evidence to suggest that racial identity moderates the relationship between perceived therapy inclusivity and willingness to use mental health services. These findings suggest that Black emerging adults may be more willing to utilize mental health services and engage with the mental healthcare system if they perceive that mental health services are for them. Findings from this dissertation project have implications for clinical practices to increase Black adults’ perceptions of therapy inclusivity. Recommendations include developing trainings about Black people’s experiences in the mental health system, building relationships with Black communities, and providing culturally responsive treatments. The findings also have policy implications. Specifically, structural changes (e.g., increasing Black adults’ representation in clinical staff and leadership) must be made to the mental healthcare system to increase Black adults’ perceptions of therapy inclusivity and willingness to seek care. Such intentional measures will help to create a better, more inclusive system for all Black adults

Where is the Market? Evidence from Cross-Listings in the U.S.

We explore two main questions. First, can two markets for a company’s shares coexist and, if so, what determines the distribution of trading volume across them? For firms cross-listed in the U.S. we find that in most cases U.S. trading is a significant fraction of total volume, and tends to be larger for companies based in countries that are geographically close, with low financial development and poor anti-insider trading protection. Moreover, the relative size of the U.S. market is larger if the company is small, volatile and high-tech. Second, we ask whether developing an active foreign market entails lower domestic trading activity. We find that for firms based in developed markets, the domestic turnover rate increases in the wake of cross-listing and remains permanently higher. In contrast, emerging market firms tend to experience a decrease in domestic trading activity.trading volume, cross-listing, flow-back

What Makes Stock Exchanges Succeed? Evidence from Cross-Listing Decisions

Despite the increasing integration of capital markets, geography has not yet become irrelevant to finance. Between 1986 and 1997, European public companies have increasingly listed abroad, especially in the U.S. We relate the cross-listing decisions to the characteristics of the destination exchanges (and countries) relative to those of the home exchange (and country). European companies appear more likely to cross-list in more liquid and larger markets, and in markets where several companies from their industry are already cross-listed. They are also more likely to cross-list in countries with better investor protection, and more efficient courts and bureaucracy, but not with more stringent accounting standards.cross-listings, going public, initial public offerings, geography, stock market competition

Investigation of the Failure Modes of Textile-Reinforced Concrete and Fiber/Textile-Reinforced Concrete under Uniaxial Tensile Tests

Recently, innovations in textile-reinforced concrete (TRC), such as the use of basalt textile fabrics, the use of high-performance concrete (HPC) matrices, and the admixture of short fibers in a cementitious matrix, have led to a new material called fiber/textile-reinforced concrete (F/TRC), which represents a promising solution for TRC. Although these materials are used in retrofit applications, experimental investigations about the performance of basalt and carbon TRC and F/TRC with HPC matrices number, to the best of the authors' knowledge, only a few. Therefore, an experimental investigation was conducted on 24 specimens tested under the uniaxial tensile, in which the main variables studied were the use of HPC matrices, different materials of textile fabric (basalt and carbon), the presence or absence of short steel fibers, and the overlap length of the textile fabric. From the test results, it can be seen that the mode of failure of the specimens is mainly governed by the type of textile fabric. Carbon-retrofitted specimens showed higher post-elastic displacement compared with those retrofitted with basalt textile fabrics. Short steel fibers mainly affected the load level of first cracking and ultimate tensile strength

"Live Better Where You Are": Home Improvement And The Rhetoric Of Renewal In The Postwar United States

While sinuous rows of new suburban ramblers remain the predominant symbol of post-World War II housing in the United States, the upgrading of existing homes was an equally essential component of the era's popular and building culture. Businesses, government agencies, academia, mass media, designers, and homeowners promoted postwar home improvement-sometimes in collaboration, often in competition for market share, consumer dollars, and professional authority. Negotiating realignments of expertise, these groups saw renewal as a national imperative, a moral virtue, and social reward. They reinterpreted traditional notions of the home as symbol of stability and security, not through timeless permanence but through perpetual change. This study examines residential architecture as a temporal space, repeatedly reconfigured as a vehicle for self-expression and in response to shifting cultural priorities. It argues that home improvement, marketed and advertised, embraced and co-opted, drew rhetorical potency from established American attitudes toward personal reinvention and a privileging of the new. The dissertation does not attempt to offer a complete history of postwar home improvement. Rather, it identifies specific episodes and interpretive lenses that offer insights into the depth and breadth of postwar remodeling activities and the ways in which a nation's culture can provide a rhetorical foundation for reshaping its built environment

Bond-slip behavior between stainless steel rebars and concrete

Maintenance of reinforced concrete structures is a prevailing topic, especially with regard to lifeline structures and bridges, many of which are now designed with a service life beyond 100 years. Reinforcement made of ordinary (carbon) steel may corrode in aggressive environments. Stainless steel, being much more resistant to corrosion, is a valid solution to facilitate the protection of the works, increasing the service life and reducing the need for repair and maintenance. Despite the potential for stainless steel to reduce maintenance costs, studies investigating the influence of stainless steel on the behavior of reinforced concrete structures are limited. This study investigated the bond behavior of stainless steel rebars by means of experimental tests on reinforced concrete specimens with different concrete cover thicknesses, concrete strengths, and bar diameters. In each case, identical specimens with carbon steel reinforcement were tested for comparison. The failure modes of the specimens were examined, and a bond stress-slip relationship for stainless steel bars was established. This research shows that the bond behavior of stainless steel rebars is comparable to that of carbon steel bars

Experimental investigation on confinement of columns with TRC: a comparison between basalt and carbon textile fabrics

The use of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) is a promising solution in the confinement of RC columns. Based on an experimental campaign on 15 short cylindrical RC columns, this work aims to get a better understanding about the performance of basalt textile in the confinement of short RC columns by comparing basalt and carbon TRC. Furthermore, the impact of mixing short steel fibers in the TRC concrete matrix (F/TRC) is investigated. The test results show that columns confined with basalt textile and carbon textile are, in terms of strength and, to some extent, post-elastic behaviour, comparable. Basalt textile seems to be a valid alternative to carbon, without significant loss of performance, and it provides less environmental impact. Columns reinforced with F/TRC show that adding 2.5 Vol.-% of short steel fibers has a beneficial effect in the confinement

Harmonic behavior of metallic glasses up to the metastable melt

In two amorphous alloys ZrTiCuNiBe and ZrAlNiCu coherent neutron scattering has been measured over five decades in energy, including measurements in the metastable melt of a metallic alloy more than 80 K above Tg. In the vibrational spectra a pronounced "boson" peak is found: Even in crystallized samples the density of states exceeds the Debye ω2 model, and in the amorphous state low-frequency vibrations are further enhanced. The peak position shows no dispersion in q, while intensities are strongly correlated with the static structure factor. Over the full energy range the temperature dependence is strictly harmonic. From high-energy resolution measurements we establish lower bounds for the temperatures at which structural α and fast β relaxation become observable